Many Palestinians empathize with Ukraine seeing the parallels between Russia’s conquest of Ukraine with Israeli rule, including its President Mahmud Abbas.
During the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmud Abbas openly criticized the “double standards” happening over Ukraine and Palestine.
Blinken and Abbas met on Sunday ahead of the Negev Summit which was headed by Israel and participated by its Arab allies. Aljazeera reported that Palestinians were not invited.
During an earlier press briefing, officials of the Palestinian Authority warned the summit participants that Israel may be using the meeting to avoid dealing with the ongoing occupation of Palestine.
“This Israeli mobilization aims to cover up its actions of deepening settlement expansion and creeping annexation,” the PA Foreign Ministry said adding that Israel continues to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Abbas’ meeting with Blinken focused on revitalizing the US-Palestine relations which collapsed during the Trump administration.
Wafa, the official PA news outlet, reported that the US secretary mirrored the President’s wishes and pledged to continue the financial aid for development and $500 million provided for humanitarian assistance sent last year.
However, since the start of his term, Biden has spent little time on Middle East issues and focused on China and now Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Abbas later voiced his frustration saying, “the current events in Europe have shown blatant double standards.”
"Despite the crimes of the Israeli occupation that amounted to ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination... we find no one who is holding Israel responsible," he said.
Despite Abbas and the PA Ministry not publicly condemning Russia just as most world leaders have in the past month, The Times of Israel wrote that many Palestinians empathize with Ukraine seeing the parallels between Russia’s conquest of Ukraine with Israeli rule.
Many have argued in defense of the PA that Moscow has political ties with other Palestinians who studied in the former Soviet Union, which also provided aid to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Tags: #Palestine, #Ukraine, #Israel, #war, #invasion, #doublestandards, #geopolitics